If this is your first visit, be sure to
check out the FAQ by clicking the
link above. You may have to register
before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages,
select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

They've threatened with bombs, rocket launchers, and lasers before, it's just pretty spread out and short-lived. Even then, if it wasn't and the trio were using weapons with intent to harm Ash often, 4KIDS would've censored everything, or just banned the episode in general. The Dratini episode is living(?) testament of that.

Probably because Pikachu Thunderbolt is a lot more effective then waving a gun around, especially when a Trainer doesn't necessarily have to give the command for a Pokemon to sense hostility.

When the average kid has six near invincible death-machines in their pocket to protect them from muggers you have to rethink how you approach the situation. The average mugger doesn't want to hurt their victim but they also don't want to be harmed in return. So Team Rocket devises ways to capture the target Pokemon so they won't inevitably be able to hurt them.

Yet Ash was at more than one gunpoint in the episode of Squirtle's debut. Man, the censors were asleep on that episode.

From what I can remember, as I haven't seen those episodes in a while, there were guns on only one or two brief ocassions, whereas in the Dratini one the warden used his gun many times throughout the episode, even shooting at TRio.

And what if Jessie and James command all their Pokémon on hand, at Team Rocket HQ, in training and at James' home that they use all their weapons as their banned and illegal Pokémon battle moves to threaten Ash for all his Pokémon currently in rotation, at Professor Oak's Lab and in training, including his Pikachu?

That would really make the whole "cheaters never prosper" message for the show a little difficult to enforce. Pokemon is a very moralistic show, so such violence would never occur ESPECIALLY in any manner which can be imitated by kids at home. Ash would never be put in such a level of peril, and Team Rocket would cross a line by doing such things which they could never uncross. They're thieves and con artists, but they'd never go so far as to threaten murder or realistic bodily harm.

This was a point I was able to discuss with some other SPPf members in an alternate thread, which dragged in elements of the game in as well. The chain of logic I follow is that in the event of a logical conflict between the anime and the main series games, the games come first. I investigated the viability of using Real Life weapons (400 gm M67 grenade) versus Pokemon of similar function (18 kg Roggenrola or 10 kg Voltorb), and how it is possible people don't use manufactured weapons in the Pokemon world.

These were the points the community brought up...

From the perspective of within the anime...
1. There is a great stigma against using manufactured weapons in the Pokemon world. The Sinnoh mythos states that a person who found a sword laid waste to the Pokemon world. Given that it was just a sword, and not even an explosive powered device like a gun, there is a massive stigma against manufacturing weapons, even worse than feeding a Muslim pork that would put a villainous team using manufactured weapons instead of Pokemon past the Moral Event Horizon (destroy with maximum prejudice: they cannot get any better/worse).
2. It has been well known since the start of Pokemon that wars have already existed in Pokemon world, with Lt. Surge and his associates having been war veterans. That would put the war within 30 years of the game setting, leaving a huge scar in the collective memories of the populace.
3. The materials to build a gun are plentiful, but not the cartridges needed for them to work. Explosives are probably under tight control in the Pokemon world. I could probably make a gun in my own house Samuel Colt style, but all that is useless if I can't even find the materials needed to make even gunpowder without counter-terrorism blasting through my door and busting me up.
4. Pokemon are capable of massive feats that would render handguns and other normal weapons useless. Gardevoir can create black holes that can suck in bullets (or just stop them Neo-style), some are just plain made of steel and only an artillery shell could destroy it (you could kick them if you are well-trained enough though).
5. Pokemon battling is a well-respected sport. Even Evil Has Standards, you know. Most criminal factions are able to operate in the open because they have respect from the populace (Galactic was able to operate under the pretense of finding clean energy sources; Plasma was able to convince the people to free their Pokemon), and using firearms would be the #1 way to lose respect and have the rest of the region going against you, more than half of them with bulletproof Pokemon. And I quote from my thread...

Originally Posted by Elnava

Why kill people with guns when you can settle your differences in a friendly pokemon battle? No one dies, no one gets PTSD, everybody's fine, and everybody walks away.

From the perspective of Nintendo...
6. It would make the family friendly series way less family friendly.

While I do acknowledge the fact that sometimes Pokemon seems lame (which is why I liked SoulSilver: the Walking Pokemon made it easier to think that the Pokemon will spring to your aid in times of crisis, and the fact that Nate standing there like an idiot while the icicles swirl around him ready to freeze him is really bad), there are reasons, both canon and executive, why this is not possible.